“The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us; the uncanny discovery that the seeker is the mystery which the seeker seeks to know.”
— Joseph Campbell
Dear Reader,
“Follow your bliss,” said writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell.
As a fan of Campbell’s, I used to end each edition of this letter with that bit of advice. The idea embodies what your Reserve membership is all about — using our team’s collective knowledge and experience to help you pursue whatever makes you happiest.
Today I’m going to share with you a tool to measure your capacity to follow your own bliss.
First, a little detour. A month into the pandemic, the idea of my usual close felt cheesy. As I wrote, “follow your bliss… seems kind of complicated right now.” So I stopped saying it, albeit reluctantly.
Then I talked to Ian Silverberg this week. And I’m thinking it’s time to reinstate my traditional adieu. Ian, you’ll recall, is a Reserve member whose curiosity has led to success — and the life he intends to live.
“I was always talking to people who were further ahead of me,” Ian recalls. He’d often ask these mentors what they would have done differently.
“The universal answer I got,” he says, “was ‘I wish I would’ve spent more time with my kids.’” So in 2007, right before the Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros. fiasco, he sold all his real estate holdings and dedicated the next four years to being a “professional dad.”
“I just knew that I needed to show up and I needed to just be present,” Ian remarks.
As his kids grew up, he worried about their financial future. And he began thinking about the world they would inherit. So he began writing down his thoughts with the intention of helping his kids. The writing helped him develop the idea of intentful living… and create communities where he could put his ideas into practice.
In other words, he’s following his bliss. And if you’ve been too caught up with Modern Society Syndrome to follow yours, Ian has a few suggestions.
“The number one thing that you should be focused on is the concept of energy,” he says. People tend to see things in terms of a return on investment (ROI)… but Ian thinks it’s better to “think about the return on energy (ROE) that you have in your life.”
ROE… ROI… what’s the difference?
ROI is “something external,” Ian explains. “I stick this capital over here and I’m expecting the world to give me something back.” You already get enough of that with the trades and investment recommendations included from this week below.
ROE, however, shifts “this agency around.” With that change of thinking, Sliverberg asserts, ”I am that energy that’s going to make this thing happen.” That realization has helped steer his way through flipping over 60 houses in Southern California and developing the communities he’s engaged with now in Utah, Costa Rica and New Zealand.
I am “the chief energy officer of my life,” Ian says bluntly. “It’s my job to set the vision.”
Ian’s “day job” as he calls it, is coaching entrepreneurs on finding and developing the vision that helps set their businesses apart.
“Working with Ian was a game changer for me,” says client Lauren Lambert, president of Douglass Maritime. “I was swamped and lost about what to do with some really challenging life and financial decisions. Ian helped me to understand how to put my choices into perspective with a bigger version of myself and my own life. The value he has created in my life is priceless; I can pretty much guarantee that working with him will level up your game.”
Tomorrow, we’ll edify you with Ian’s complete philosophy.
Have a good weekend… and follow your bliss,
Addison Wiggin
Founder, The Financial Reserve
